FBI officials have been sparring with carriers, a process that has on
occasion included threats of contempt of court, in a bid to deploy
government-provided software capable of intercepting and analyzing
entire communications streams. The FBI's legal position during these
discussions is that the software's real-time interception of metadata is authorized under the Patriot Act.

Attempts by the FBI to install what it internally refers to as "port
reader" software, which have not been previously disclosed, were
described to CNET in interviews over the last few weeks. One former
government official said the software used to be known internally as the
"harvesting program."